# Free Software Supporter
Issue 36, March 2011
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
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## TABLE OF CONTENTS
* 2010 Free Software Awards announced
* FSF announces new executive director
* Sign-up! May 4th, 2011 Day Against DRM
* Happy 10th birthday to FSF Europe!
* Happy Document Freedom Day!
* Volunteer to help the new Savannah maintainer
* Free software is what we humans are talking more about
* Steer clear of Android Market and its DRM
* Avoid the pitfalls of the JavaScript Trap on Gmail
* EA uses DRM to punish forum behavior
* Trisquel 4.5 "Slaine" released
* Librarians Against DRM
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Day Against DRM 2011
* GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
* Featured GNU Status Report: Gnash 0.8.9 Released
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
* Take action with the FSF!
### 2010 Free Software Awards announced
During our annual conference, LibrePlanet, we announced the 2010 Free
Software Awards.
This year, the Award for Social Benefit was given to The Tor Project
for their critical role in protecting the privacy of many millions of
Internet users using free software.
The Award for the Advancement of Free Software was given to Rob Savoye
for his long-time contributions to many important free software
projects, including Gnash, GCC, GDB and OLPC, during the past 20 years.
* <http://www.fsf.org/news/2010-free-software-awards-announced>
### FSF announces new executive director
Peter Brown, who has been part of the FSF for the last ten years and
served as our executive director since 2005, has decided to seek new
challenges.
John Sullivan was appointed by the FSF board as his successor.
We are looking forward to facing new challenges and taking new
opportunities under John's leadership!
* <http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-announces-new-executive-director>
### Sign-up! May 4th, 2011 Day Against DRM
We are about to have the third International Day Against DRM, which is
a worldwide call for action to raise awareness about the threats
that DRM brings.
We have set up a mailing list for planning and discussing activities for
that day. Please join and post!
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/day-against-drm-2011-announce>
### Happy 10th birthday to FSF Europe!
Our European sister organization, FSFE, celebrated its tenth birthday
this month. Since 2001, the Free Software Foundation Europe has worked
hard for software freedom in Europe.
Happy birthday, FSFE!
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-10th-birthday-to-fsf-europe>
### Happy Document Freedom Day!
Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for document liberation
that is celebrated on the last Wednesday of every March since 2008,
organized by FSFE.
This year's Document Freedom Day took place on March 30th and there
were celebrations in Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Germany, Italy,
Spain, the United Kingdom and several other countries.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/dfd-2011>
* <http://documentfreedom.org>
### Volunteer to help the new Savannah maintainer
Sylvain Beucler, who was instrumental in modernizing and maintaining
Savannah for the last seven years, has decided to step down and look
for new challenges. Many, many, thanks to Sylvain and best wishes.
Michael Flickinger, a long-time Savannah administrator, has taken over
maintainer responsibilities and resumed work on the Savannah back
end. New volunteers would be greatly appreciated!
*
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/volunteer-to-help-the-new-savannah-maintainer>
### Free software is what we humans are talking more about
Peter Brown wrote about his experience as the outgoing executive
director of the Free Software Foundation:
> When I joined the FSF in 2001, free software was not so well
> known. The values we promoted were often ignored in the corporate
> adoption and promotion of free software under the banner of open
> source.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/peterb>
### Steer clear of Android Market and its DRM
Google recently made headlines after they identified some malware
being distributed through the Android Market. Not only did they stop
distributing those apps, but they used their "remote kill switch" to
remove the apps from phones where they were already downloaded. This
is a kind of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) that all computer
users should avoid.
In this case, the DRM is being used to prevent developers from
breaking phones' security and collecting personal information without
authorization. Those are laudable ends, but they don't justify the
means: anyone using the Android Market gives Google the power to
remove software from their phones.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/android-market-has-drm-too>
### Avoid the pitfalls of the JavaScript Trap on Gmail
Our campaigns team started a new series of instructions on how to
avoid running proprietary JavaScript when browsing popular websites
that use JavaScript heavily.
Gmail is the topic of the first installment. Many of you are viewing
this right now via Gmail, so please take a moment to read this
article.
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gmail-jstrap>
### EA uses DRM to punish forum behavior
Just because you buy a DRM-restricted game doesn't mean you can play
it. An unfortunate forum comment temporarily left a gamer unable to
play a single-player game purchased through the EA Store, as EA
revoked his game access along with his forum access. This article
about the dangers of proprietary games and DRM is the first post by
our newest campaigns intern, Helen.
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ea-punishes-forum-behavior>
### Trisquel 4.5 "Slaine" released
Trisquel, the free GNU/Linux distribution, has just released a new
version, based on Linux-libre 2.6.35 and GNOME 2.32. It features
experimental NVIDIA 3D graphics support!
* <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/trisquel-4.5-slaine-released>
### Librarians Against DRM
A recent move by the publisher HarperCollins -- limiting the number of
times an ebook can be checked out -- may have just pushed many
librarians over the edge. One reaction to this demand of HarperCollins
is a call for a "Readers' Bill of Rights", as well as the creation of
powerful graphics and logos that create solidarity for Librarians
Against DRM.
* <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/Librarians-Against-DRM>
### LibrePlanet featured resource: Day Against DRM 2011
Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.
For this month, we are highlighting Day Against DRM 2011 resources,
for individuals and groups to plan local and global actions for this
year's Day on May 4th.
* <http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:DefectiveByDesign/Day_Against_DRM_2011>
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at <[email protected]>.
### GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
autoconf-archive-2011.03.17 hello-2.7 smalltalk-3.2.4
autogen-5.11.8 help2man-1.39.2 tar-1.26
ccaudio2-2.0.5 icecat-3.6.16 tramp-2.2.1
dejagnu-1.5 libidn-1.20 ucommon-4.2.2
emacs-23.3 libmicrohttpd-0.9.8 vc-dwim-1.4
gcc-4.6.0 m4-1.4.16 vcdimager-0.7.24
global-5.9.4 nano-2.3.0 xorriso-1.0.4
gnash-0.8.9 ncurses-5.8 zile-2.3.23
gnutls-2.12.0 parallel-20110322
gtypist-2.8.4 sipwitch-0.10.5
To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the
info-gnu mailing list:
<http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu>. Nearly all GNU
software is available from <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/>, or preferably
one of its mirrors (<http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html>). You can use
the url <http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/> to be automatically redirected to
a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
This month Ralf Angeli adds GNU AUCTeX
<http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/> to the GNU RefTeX package he was
already co-maintaining with David Kastrup. Thanks Ralf and David.
Several GNU packages are looking for maintainers and other assistance.
Please see <http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint> if
you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html>. To submit new packages to GNU,
see <http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html>.
As always, please feel free to write to me, <[email protected]>, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
### Featured GNU Status Report: Gnash 0.8.9 Released
Open Media Now! and the Gnash community are happy to announce the
release of Gnash 0.8.9. Gnash the GNU Flash player is a free/libre SWF
movie player, with all the source code released under GPLv3. Gnash is
available as both a standalone player and also as a browser plugin for
Firefox (and all other Gecko-based browsers), Chromium and Konqueror.
* <http://www.gnashdev.org/?q=node/78>
### Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
2011-04-01 Free Software and Your Freedom
Regina, Canada
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110322-fs-regina>
2011-04-02 Copyright vs. Community
Regina, Canada
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110402-cvc-regina>
2011-04-04 Free Software and Your Freedom
Prince George, Canada
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110404-fs-princegeorge>
2011-04-11 A Free Digital Society - What Makes Digital Inclusion Good
or Bad?
Palo Alto, CA
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110411-fds-paloalto>
2011-04-16 For a Free Digital Society
San Francisco, CA
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110416-fs-sanfrancisco>
2011-05-02 Les logiciel libre et votre liberté
Tetouan, Morocco
* <http://www.fsf.org/events/20110502-fs-tetouan>
### Take action with the FSF
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's
work. You can contribute by joining at <http://www.fsf.org/join>. If
you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some
rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:
I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom!
<http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442>
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers
(<http://www.fsf.org/volunteer>). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from
issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for
everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section
(<http://www.fsf.org/campaigns>) and take action on software patents,
DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.
###
The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this
license, visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/> or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
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